'summer' in ghana!

Due to some unforeseen technical issues, I just regained access to my blog account. It's been a few months since my last update and plenty of new, exciting things have happened since! I know all of you faithful followers cannot wait to read what I have to say. I'll try to do this by month, it might be easier to recall.

JUNE

June was filled with Pre-Service Training (PST) for the new group and much anticipation for Lindsay's visit in July! Knowing that I was going to be gone for pretty much all of July, I didn't want to get too much going in the village so I just enjoyed my time there with the village!

PST was a big wake-up call when we (by this i mean myself, along with a lot of my fellow ‘10-’12 PCVs) realized we were no longer the babies in the group anymore. We are now the 'senior group' in Peace Corps' Ghana! I've said it before, and I'll continue to say it...my time over here has flown by and isn't slowing down any! It was very interesting to see the curiosity of the new trainee's and attempt to answer all their questions. It made me realize how much I have adapted to this life and culture in only a year!

JULY

Lindsay's visit to Ghana! The time has finally arrived. It was hard to predict what her visit would be like, knowing I hadn't seen her (or any family member) in over a year!! I anxiously waited for her flight to land in Accra, obsessively checking the website to see when her flight left DC! Sitting in the airport, not knowing what I will do when I see her was interesting. I didn't know if I would cry, or if we'd have one of those really dramatic run into each other's arms embrace....but I knew it would be awesome! As soon as I saw her walking through customs, I just stood there smiling. A small tear was in my eye, but as soon as we said hello it was like we were never apart. I went straight into my Ghanaian attitude, telling taxi drivers to leave us alone, that we didn't need a taxi because I knew where we were going. I joked with them telling them they were going to overcharge us anyways....that I could just walk down to the junction and get a cab for a few cedis. Lindsay just cracked up, asking me if I was always like this now. I can definitely say I am very sarcastic with Ghanaians, just playing along with their stories and bringing a few smiles to my own face and theirs.

Being the wonderful little sister that I am, I put Lindsay up at one of the classiest places in Accra: The Salvation Army hostel!! There’s a first time for everything, and why not make it her first night in Ghana. We didn’t even splurge for the self-contained room; we stayed in the shared dormitory for 7 GHC (the exchange rate is 1.5 GHC = $1 USD....so around $4.67) per person. She told me she wanted to experience Ghana in the Peace Corps fashion, so I thought there was no better way than to stay at the cheap hostel straight away. We dropped our bags off and headed out in Osu to find some food. Lindsay was a bit hesitant to leave her bags in an unlocked room, but I reassured her that I had stayed at this place before and they were safe!

I was much nicer when it came to food, and didn’t make her stick her hands in a big bowl of fufu right away, we went to eat some delicious chinese food. (We had originally wanted pizza but the restaurant was closed on Mondays!) After sharing some sweet and sour chicken with fried rice, we walked down to get gelato! It just felt right being back together again, just talking about the last year of our lives. I was super excited to spend the next THREE weeks with my sister.

The next morning, after a good night’s sleep for me and a restless night’s sleep for Lindsay, we hauled our bags to the STC bus station to buy tickets to Cape Coast. We got there and of course, Lindsay was quick to experience the classic Ghanaian “hurry up and wait” complex. The bus was scheduled to leave around noon, and we didn’t take off until after 3 p.m. The bus didn’t even show up to begin boarding until after 2! We arrived safely to Cape Coast and had prior arrangements with a taxi cab to take us to Elmina to The Stumble Inn Resort!

We enjoyed a few amazing days at the resort! So relaxing, beautiful view of the ocean, chill atmosphere! We visited the historic Elmina and Cape Coast Castles, drank the absolute worst milkshakes of our lives, created our very own, unique batik fabrics, and continued to enjoy our time together! Lindsay experienced some of her first ‘local’ foods when we ate ‘red-red’, which is fried plantains with a spicy bean stew. She also found her favorite chop: street vendor rice and stew!

The day leaving Cape Coast was a normal day in Ghana for me, but it was an experience for Lindsay (to say the least). The day started at 3:30 a.m., when we were to report to the STC bus station to wait to buy our tickets to Kumasi. As always, ‘hurry up and wait’ was in full swing. We arrive to the station at 4 a.m., during the light drizzle of rain, only to find the station employees sleeping! We wait about an hour for them to wake up and finally call Takoradi (the location the bus will originally take off) to see how many tickets are left. There is enough, but of course that bus left late too. I think finally around 6:30 or 7:00 we’re en route to Kumasi. The bus was normal: extremely cold air-conditioning and loud Nigerian films blasting our eardrums.

To continue our long day of travel, once we arrived in Kumasi we planned on going straight up to Tamale (another 5-7 hours away!). We had a taxi take us to the station and the only car available was a Mercedes Bus. It’s a big passenger lorry that is not comfortable at all. Our option was take that, or wait HOURS for a big bus to fill. Thinking it wasn’t too bad, I bought our tickets and we were off. It started out fairly decent, but 4 hours in after we hadn’t been able to stretch our legs or eat lunch, things got interesting. This lead to a small disagreement regarding my transportation choice! With Lindsay hungry and uncomfortable, and my laid-back “it could be worse” attitude, we sat for the remaining 3 hours in not the best of moods. However, I can proudly say this was the only bickering that happened over the entire three weeks! We arrived to Tamale safely, somehow, and before dark we were at a hotel with air-conditioning and a pool!

The next two days of relaxation were needed after that grueling day of travel! Lindsay met some of my fellow PCVs in Tamale on Sunday Fun-day @ the pool! :) I was excited for her to meet Katie, my best pal from Three Rivers, Michigan! We introduced her to the exciting revelation of alcohol sachets! Our top choice was GOAL, a sugarcane spirit that we learned tastes much better when chilled. These sachets cost .30 pesewas each ($0.20 cents!), and contain 1 1/2 shots! She was on her way to experiencing the Peace Corps lifestyle, minus the air-conditioned hotel room and flush toilet.

After Tamale, one more long, bumpy ride was in order to finally get to Wa, in my region. This called for another early morning at the bus station, at my least favorite bus company, MetroMass. We were unfortunately seated in the back of the bus, and the seat next to ours didn’t have a backrest. The man who sat there just told Lindsay he would ‘manage’, as she quickly learned most Ghanaians do. However, we had an interesting bus ride, complaining of the terribly rough dirt road and lack of shocks on the bus with other passengers.

It was great to be in Wa, where I feel most comfortable and could show Lindsay around with ease. Finally people knew me by name, and were excited to meet my ‘piema’ (older sister). We planned on spending six full days in my village, but after the fifth day of no running water, no electricity, and extreme heat, Lindsay was more than ready to get back to ‘civilization’ a.k.a. Wa. As they say in Ghana, “She did well” and adapted to my village life much better than expected by most of our family. She was lucky enough to be in the village for market day and CWC, Child Welfare Clinic. CWC is baby weighing and immunization day, where the nurses come to the town centre and all the mothers with children under 36 months come together.

We started The World Map project at the JHS. We painted the background ocean blue and started drawing the rigorous grid-lines! This project will be fun to work on with the students once I get back from training and school resumes. Also, we hope to paint The World Map at Lindsay’s school with her students that I pen-pal with through the WorldWise program.

Also while Lindsay was in the village, we selected the final contestants for the PEPFAR (President’s Emergency Plan For Aids Relief) Calendar Contest. I did HIV/AIDS education and awareness with some JHS boys and girls, in conjunction with drawing pictures. The theme for the 2012 calendar is “Protect Your Dream”, so the students drew pictures that emphasized what they would do to protect their dreams (especially by the ABCs -- abstaining from sex, being faithful to partners, and using condoms) and encourage those living with HIV to continue to pursue their dreams. The four finalists came to my house to paint their submissions on big manilla poster board and use water-based paints for the first time! It was fun watching and helping them create such beautiful pieces of art! (However, this was the day it was so hot...Lindsay was sitting in my ‘chief chair’ with a wet rag around here neck and she told me the next morning we would go to Wa, instead of staying another day!)

Next stop was PCV Britany’s village for a PEPFAR field activity at her high school and surrounding communities. Lindsay was very excited to see a high school (secondary school) in Ghana, and interact with the students. Peer educators had been selected to go into the surrounding Junior High School’s to teach their peers about HIV/AIDS. It was also my first time visiting Britany’s site and, as always, it was great to see students furthering their education.

During this stop, Lindsay also got to see how different each Volunteer’s site is. She had just come from my no electricity/no running water site, and now stepped into another PCV’s site with electricity, a big, nicely decorated house, people who fluently speak English and a set schedule. She knew she couldn’t ever survive at a site like mine, but after staying a couple nights with a fan and lights, she decided that she just might be able to cope at a ‘posh’ site like hers!

After hanging out the Senior High for a few days, we were off to Accra! We went back to the Salvation Army again, and this time was much better. Lindsay was more acclimated to my new lifestyle, and she was happy to pay 7 GHC a night, over the 70 GHC we paid in Tamale for the A/C! From Accra we met up with Chris to go to the Volta Region for the last few days of Lindsay’s trip.

Again, Lindsay got to experience the differences of Ghana. We took an air-conditioned mini-van towards Hohoe and dropped early at the junction to his village. During the few days at his village, we had a fabulous time! We made a bunch of delicious food, saw some amazing picturesque places and shared many laughs together! We went to Wli Falls, hiked Paradise Mountain, and visited a monkey sanctuary! We were hiking in such a dense, luscious tree-covered area. It was absolutely breathtaking, but of course I forgot to charge my camera so our pictures are very limited. However, we saw beautiful waterfalls and swung on vines like Tarzan and Jane! It was only my second time to the Volta Region as well, so it was great to experience such a beautiful place with Lindsay!

On our way back to Accra for the final time, we were talking about where we should sleep and Lindsay was the first to say she was willing to sleep at the Salvation Army again! Third time really is a charm, because this time she said she slept very well and didn’t lie awake all night in her small bed! Ghana really changes a person, even if it is only a three week visit! Our last night we went out to Mamma Mia’s (an amazing pizzeria!) and went back to the gelato place where we went on her first night here! I’ll never forget the amazing conversation we had at dinner that night, about how Ghana has influenced my life and now Lindsay experienced a part of my service with me. As you can tell, we had an amazing time experiencing Ghana together.

After Ghana, Lindsay now know that....
1. I’m coming really means I’m leaving.
2. White ladies are local celebrities, always.
3. You can get a good meal of rice, stew and chicken for $1.50.
4. A cold Coke is SO refreshing! (I’ll continue to add more as I think of them)

AUGUST

The morning after I dropped Lindsay off at the airport, I was on a bus to Tamale for off-site technical training with the new Trainees! I was lucky enough to be a PCV Trainer for my sector, Health, Water & Sanitation (WATSAN!). The technical training was held in the same village, Gushie, as our was one year ago, so it was fun to go back and visit the people there. The two-weeks were filled with days of lectures on behavior change, digging soak-away pits, visiting NGOs, attending baby weighing and many other sessions.

Once training was finished, I was excited to get back to my village! By this time, I had been away from my village for a good three weeks so I was more than anxious to get home. Ace, being the Ghanaian greeter he is, was one of the first to greet me as soon as I got off the lorry. He was wagging his little tail faster than you can imagine!

My visit to the village was quick, as I was back off to Accra for the 50th Anniversary of Peace Corps Ghana and swearing-in event for the PCTs. The event was held at the Ambassador’s residence. The Minister of Foreign Affairs was our most distinguished guest and he gave a very inspirational speech about how a Peace Corps Volunteer influenced his own life. I keep reminding myself, although I might not see it this instant, years from now someone I crossed paths with will remember me as I am certain I will do the same with them.

After the big 50th shindig, I stayed in Accra with some other northern Ghana region PCVs to complete our Mid-Service Medical exams! It was awesome, living the dream in America, I mean Accra, again for a few more days! Kentucky Fried Chicken is now in Accra, and it tastes like home even though they don’t have mashed potatoes OR the biscuits! Accra is always filled with good times containing happy hours, cheese, dancing, and too much fun and laughing!

SEPTEMBER

FINALLY, a month where I get to just hang out at home in my village! Although I had a blast at all the events of the previous months, I was super eager to get home. Back in the village, school was starting again and yam season is in full-swing. I filled this month with malaria education for the women’s groups and mosquito net distribution! The women were so thankful, singing and dancing songs to thank the nurses and I for educating them. My favorite song that they sang translates to “our fathers punished us by not allowing us to go to school; i wish i could have gone to school to be a nurse”.

Although I was just at my mid-service medical with no complaints, September was a month of illnesses. This is going to get gross, but you all want to know what I’m doing over here. It started with a huge boil on my armpit, which was cured by antibiotics, hot compresses, and local medicine! After that disgusting mess was gone, the bees decided my house was their new home. I avoided them for a few days, but then one stung me right next to my right eye! Luckily there was no swelling and the pain went away after a bit. However, my bad health luck was still around and I got pink eye! It was just awful. I have never contracted it before and I hope I never do again. But again, antibiotics and eye drops it cleared up and now I’m alright.

OCTOBER

It’s now fall right. Football Fever. I WISH! Go Blue! Go Lions :)

This month I’m in the village again, distributing more nets and teaching mathematics at the JHS again. The World Map project is almost complete, thanks to the help of my neighbor PCV Hannah! Most of the world is drawn, with the exception of a small part of Europe, and now it’s time to PAINT! I’ll keep you updated on the process and the reactions of people when they see just how big the world really is! Peace. xoxo!